Educational Wikis:
Before beginning this module all of my experience with wikis had come from our Math department resource page. We have used PBWorks as a resource to share resources that have worked for each of our classes. A second wiki even had to be created because we ran out of storage space on the first. Throughout this module, I have learned about many positive benefits of using a wiki with students. In Web 2.0 How-To for Educators it is mentioned that while using wikis students are likely to provide honest feedback because they feel responsible for each other’s work (Solomon, 2014, Chapter 8, What is a Wiki? Para. 5). Collaboration also provides the opportunity to create the valuable career skill of teamwork (para. 5). Solomon and Schrum also discuss several effective uses of wikis such as collaborating to solve problems, editing peer work and creating electronic portfolios (Solomon, 2014, Chapter 8, Why is a Collaboration Tool a Useful Tool? para. 2). According to Reich, Murnane, and Willett, many educational wikis fall short of achieving this level of collaboration for students. Based on their research only 26% of all wikis involved student created content and only 1% involve the collaboration of students (Reich, J., Murnane, R., Willet, J., 2011). Throughout this module, I have had the opportunity to learn from several wikis used for education and reflect on their effectiveness. In my own classroom, I would like to introduce a wiki as an opportunity for students to demonstrate their ability to use mathematical problem solving to apply their knowledge to the real world. I would like to incorporate a mixture of individual assignments and collaborative assignments where students discuss effective ways of solving problems. I also plan to continue using wikis professionally to share effective practices with colleagues. We can all really learn a lot from looking at what other teachers are doing with their wikis in the classroom. Some of what I have learned from wikis created by other teachers can be found below.
Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio
This wiki was created by a class in Nova Scotia, Canada. This wiki serves as a portfolio of artifacts showing what students should know before the conclusion of the course. The material is broken into four sections which are quadratic functions, exponential functions, circle geometry, and probability. All of these sections are clearly labeled and easy to navigate. Within each of these sections is a wealth of information created by the teacher Mr. Lee and his students. According to the homepage, students were supposed to collaborate with a partner and create an artifact for each section of the course. This seems to be a great resource for the students to refer to as they prepare for their end of year exam. The wiki seems to have not been edited for the last ten years and I think it would be beneficial if Mr. Lee had future classes come and add onto it.
Westwood Schools Computer Science
This wiki is clearly an ongoing project that began in 2005 and is still being updated today. Each student has their own link to an efolio where they share information about themselves and publish work that they have completed throughout the year. There seems to be a lack of collaboration within the wiki as most of the student work is published on their individual websites. I feel that if students had the opportunity to collaborate within a single wiki page they would have the opportunity to provide more peer feedback.
FHS Wolves Den
This seems to be the source of a great deal of content for English and History classes. A lot of work has clearly been put into this wiki and all material is very well organized. Students clearly have the opportunity to collaborate as the teacher mentions that it is considered a shared workspace. I really have a hard time finding anything that is missing from this wiki and feel that all teachers have a lot to learn from this wiki. Students seem to enjoy having the opportunity to discuss various topics. Students also have several opportunities to create their own wiki page and discuss their feelings about current events at the time such as the 2008 election. This wiki has not been updated since 2008 because the teacher is no longer working in the classroom.
Productivity Tools:
There are a plethora of effective productivity tools for teachers to use professionally and with students. Some of the tools that I explored through this module are Google, Wikis, MyStudiyo, and infogram. Google provides a wealth of resources for educators for personal use and uses with students. Students can create a document that is shared with peers and their teacher. This can be used to collaborate on a written assignment and a teacher can monitor input from all participants. These documents provide most tools that are available with expensive software packages and the flexibility of viewing the document from anywhere. Google also provides spreadsheets, websites, presentations, and a wealth of other tools where students have to ability to collaborate and share all of these tools. Wikis provide many of the collaboration opportunities that Google does as well as the opportunity easily publish work. MyStudiyo is a quiz generator that I found in chapter 12 of Web 2.0 How-To For Educators. Although this tool does not provide opportunities for students to easily collaborate, I feel that this could be an asset in identifying learning needs in class. I feel that this quiz generator could be used for formative assessments at the end of class to gauge student understanding. I used this tool to create a short closing assignment to see what students learned at the end of a lesson. These quizzes also have the capability of being embedded into a web page. I do wish that they came without adds though. Infogram is another tool that I explored through this module. This tool could be used for students to create an infographic to demonstrate knowledge of a concept or complement a major project that they have completed. I used this tool to create an infographic on problem-solving strategies for my Coordinate Algebra students. I feel that the tools available for the free part of this website are very limited, but students could create an appealing infographic using this. All of these tools have the ability to support students with diverse learning needs. The tools that Google provides for teachers create the opportunity for many different representations of content. Students have the opportunity to complete more individualized assignments and learn at their own pace. The digital divide does continue to be a concern, but I feel that more use of these technologies in the classroom will help students to catch up.
Based on the Pedagogy Wheel created by Allan Carrington, I feel that both Google and Wiki spaces have the ability to be classified anywhere between remember and create. A simple wiki that is only used by the teacher to provide content would only be used for students to either remember or understand the material. As teachers hand over the keys to their students, they gain the opportunity to become creators of something and who knows how far they will go. Infogram also provides the opportunity for students to collaborate on the creation of a product. I feel that these tools provide students with many of the skills that they are going to need to be productive members of the future workforce.
References:
Barnett, J. (2008). FHS Wolves Den. Retrieved from http://fhswolvesden.wikispaces.com/space/content on September 27, 2017.
Davis, V. (2017). Westwood Schools Computer Science. Retrieved from http://westwood.wikispaces.com on September 27, 2017.
Lee, M., (2007). Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio. Retrieved from http://acrospire.pbworks.com/w/page/1342627/FrontPage on September 27, 2017.
Reich, J., Murnane, R., Willet, J. (2011). The State of Wiki Usage in U.S. K-12 Schools: Leveraging Web 2.0 Data Warehouses to Assess Quality and Equity in Online Learning Environments.
Solomon, A., Schrum, L. (2014). Web 2.0 How-To for Educators (2nd Edition). Retrieved from Amazon.com